Week-notes S01 E19
16–20th Oct
This week was a bit pants, because I didn’t feel very well for most of it. I took Monday off and then took it easy the rest of the week. I would have stayed at home Tuesday and Wednesday as well, but I had my coaching session that I didn’t want to rearrange and also I needed to bring my sister into Parliament on the Wednesday for the debate on vaginal mesh implants and even though she is 35 she can’t use public transport yet! To be fair I also wanted to support her on her quest in lobbying Parliament after her operation has left her in chronic pain and unable to live the life she should be living in her prime. I did not get involved in the actual lobbying as I obviously need to remain impartial at all times!
It is also pants because I feel a bit lost and I am struggling to decide on my next steps, curve balls seem to be coming at me from all directions, hence I haven’t put very much love and attention into these week-notes. Louise’s blog post on self-doubt, really struck a chord with me this week.
Monday I was poorly, so stayed at home.
Tuesday I wanted to stay at home as I didn’t feel 100% still but I had my coaching session and I didn’t want to cancel last minute. I really like and respect my coach and I wanted to have the opportunity to talk about how I am feeling at the moment. When I got into work, I ate breakfast and I went straight back out to meet Jaie one of the PMO team for a veggie smoothie and catch up in Crussh. Jaie has become a pivotal person for Digital Development, he provides us with much needed help and support around finances and procurement and we had great catch up.
I hung around in Crussh to meet my coach, and we had a really good session. We focused on how to help me feel less lost. I took away a lot of actions, most of which I started to do when I got back to my desk. My next session will be my last and I don’t think they will continue after that, which I am very sad about, coaching has been very useful to me.
I should have gone home but popped to the Data & Search show and tell. It was great to see Sara, one of the new members of the team presenting her statistical analysis on Search.
I grabbed some lunch and sat down with Jake, one of our front end developers to create two career paths in MS Visio. We then went straight to my capability planning session. Lots of people turned up that hadn’t been for a while and they seemed focused on helping, all good.
Lastly that day I met with Rebecca from the content team, she wants to help me make the presentation I created on capability for the senior management team into something that we could share with external audiences, I am excited about this. Especially as last week at the National Archives they were so appreciative of the time I spent with them talking about recruitment, I would like to do more of this….I think!
On Wednesday I brought my sister into work and actually into our building so she could grab some breakfast and she said and I quote “the office reminds me of a cross between a hospital and a school”. I then dropped her off at Cromwell Green so that she could join her lobbying group and head to Westminster Hall for her debate. At this moment I felt an enormous sense of pride at working at this great institution.
I spent some time at my desk, I had a chat with Mr Barrett. I spent some time looking at G Cloud. I chased up the Development Senior Team about vacancies to advertise for the Silicon Milkroundabout. I spoke to one of the Portfolio team about one of their vacancies and emailed Abby Peel at GDS to try and arrange a visit to their capability team and new building I have heard so much about. I booked in some catch ups with a couple of the senior team to start narrowing down the G Cloud searches I have started.
I had my one to one with Emma (My boss). I gave her an update on what I had been working on in the last week and my visit to the National Archives. I talked to her about the Senior Management Team away day happening next week, where they plan to talk about capability. I really want to go and I have made that clear, but it isn’t going to happen and for some very valid reasons so I need to accept that.
I then grabbed a coffee and working lunch in Starbucks, sometimes I need to get out of the office, it can sometimes be too noisy to concentrate. I then popped back to the office for our Silicon Milkroundabout catch up and we went through the Trello board and updated our tasks. I still seem to be leading this work, reluctantly.
Lastly that day I went to the departmental stand up. We are now using JIRA to add our sprint tasks and I am just about getting used to it. It definitely makes it a much quicker meeting than it used to be. Not sure everyone is using it properly quite yet though, but it is a step forward in terms of streamlining the process and the time we are spending at this ceremony.
On Thursday I caught up with a staff member to offer some advice and support on a job she had applied for. We talked through some preparation ideas. She messaged me later to say she had an interview…awesome!
I then had a catch up with Tori (Director or Transformation) and Glenn (Portfolio Practice Transformation Lead) to talk through our thoughts on transformation/capability and also what Tori will be presenting to the senior team at their away day on Wednesday. I want to have more of these catch ups and work together more closely, I am going to make sure that happens.
I caught up with one of the Developing Project Manager’s over lunch.
I went to my regular catch up with Mr Dan Barrett (most trusted colleague). I mentioned before that he isn’t my line manager anymore, but we still meet every couple of weeks to provide each other with support, advice or just to have a rant and download, this is good for my mental health and I did talk a little about my feelings of hopelessness…. perhaps these feelings were magnified because I wasn’t feeling at my best?! As ever Dan listened and provided me with some sensible advice. I hope I do as good a job at listening and helping when he needs me to.
On Friday I worked from home mainly responding to emails and working on administrative tasks. I provided some feedback to Tori on what she is presenting to the Senior Team and I updated my IPR (Personal Objectives). I had a new oven fitted and I tried to rest up as much as possible.
Other stuff….
Reading — Great blog posts by Louise (see link above) and Sam and not much else worth telling you about.
Listening to — Various chill out playlists by Amazon music.
Watching –Ray Donovan series 3 (but it has disappeared from Sky boxsets they only have 4 onwards annoying).
I watched some movies “The Light Between Oceans” — harrowing but beautifully acted, I love Fassbender.
Not so great movies was “Maggie’s Plan” which was average but not as terrible and as wasteful of my life and free cinema tickets as “Geostorm” utter garbage.
I also watched S1 E1 of Suits as a friend recommended it. TBH not sure I like the characters enough, I will give it a couple more episodes and then decide.
Also watched a couple of episodes of The Gifted, which is better than I thought it was going to be.
